10 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

1. The Gathering Storm

   Understanding Our Dangerous New Political Reality

   

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   1. Regionalism has always been an anti-federalist cause, David. Invoking it as the crisis of the moment seems to me to be conceding the fight to the right.

      The same applies to the old "elites" vs. "populists" rhetoric. That concedes the fight to the left.

      The issue is that those who benefited from the 20th century (corporations, media, Parties, and ordinary Americans dependent on them) are refusing to let go of the power that granted those benefits. That plagues NBC and Fox, Democrats and Republicans, as well as Walmart and Patagonia, equally. Our politics are not left or right, urban or rural, or even regional. They are status quo vs. change.

      What we're witnessing is the death of the 20th century, not the Republic or our Democracy. If we do lose either of those, it's because one side or the other chose Party over progress.

      NOTE: I'm not saying Tech Bros and their "dark satanic algorithms" are progress. They are clearly the "monsters" invoked in your appropriation of Gramsci's quote.

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      1. I agree

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2. Jennifer Rubin states the obvious as plainly as possible

   Trump and his crew are nuts

   While Musk was the most unstable, wacked-out member of the Trump team, we should consider the full array of misfits, cranks, neo-Nazi sympathizers, demagogues, anti-constitutionalists, and habitual liars who populate the Trump team. In a single administration, there have never been so many intellectually shortchanged figures, ethically compromised lawyers, and emotionally unhinged conspiratorialists (from Kash Patel to Ed Martin to Paul Ingrassia to Emil Bove to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to Pete Hegseth to Stephen Miller). Given all that, the coverage of the Trump crew has been bizarrely inexact and feeble. Continuing to treat them as simply “conservatives” or “right-wing” figures rather than unwell and part of a cabal of nuttery serves to normalize a dangerous, bizarre regime, unlike anything we have seen in modern American history.

   … refusal to acknowledge Trump and his minions’ irrationality leads to constant rationalization of unhinged behavior as part of some grandiose, ingenious strategy. Ed Kilgore wrote last month: “This rationalization of the 47th president’s worst impulses is especially dangerous since it reinforces his own belief that he is never wrong.” Kilgore argued that if Trump “is encouraged to behave more erratically than ever, he will continue to reward destructive nihilism in his subordinates, and we’ll all go a bit mad just trying to keep up.”

   The corporate and billionaire-owned media serve up jokey TACO memes, but deliver little comprehensive analysis of Trump’s underlying instability, contradictory impulses, and reversals on policy matters ranging from tariffs to Ukraine, all aided and abetted by hand-picked stooges.

    

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3. From Brad DeLong as I wrote back in 2019:

   Brad DeLong: Passing the Baton <https://www.bradford-delong.com/2021/03/hoisted-from-%C3%BEe-archives-2019-passing-%C3%BEe-baton.html>: ‘Looking to the right of the Rubin Wing of the Democratic Party, we see rubble. Then we see more rubble. And more rubble. Beyond that, rubble. And then, at the far end of the political spectrum, what former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright can only call the American version of a 21-st century neo-fascism <https://books.google.com/books?isbn=006293127X>, devoted to entrenching plutocracy and stoking ethnic and religious hatreds, with which a great many people who ought to know better are making accommodation…

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4. "O my God"

    

   ~Sting

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5. Wow, Joe Walsh claims to have joined the Democratic Party! Not Joe Walsh of the Eagles and Funk #49, but the former GOP/TEA congress-critter. I'm not sure how much I'm likely to wind up agreeing with him, but there's one paragraph from his blog I think Dem Doomers all need to take a fresh look at:

   Without freedom, democracy, and the rule of law, America ceases to be. And currently, only the Democratic Party is on the side of all three of these core American values. There isn’t a third party coming to the rescue any time soon. Right now, the Democratic Party is democracy’s lone defender and best hope.

   OK, here's one from Funk #49 too:

   A-jumpin' up, fallin' down
   Don't misunderstand me
   You don't think that I know your plan
   What you tryin' to hand me?

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   1. I didn't know who that was admittedly. So if anyone is confused, take a quick glance of the Wikipedia page about him. Good for him and us I believe.

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   2. When God closes one door, she opens a window …..

      https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/5332349-karine-jean-pierre-independent-biden-book/

      Joe Walsh arrives just as Karine Jean-Pierre leaves.

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      1. I did see that and it's noteworthy, but probably won't search out the book. I'll leave it there. 

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